Vietnamese authorities in the Mekong Delta (or known as Cuu Long) are
fully geared for the upcoming flood season caused by rising levels in the
Mekong and its tributaries, an annual feature.
Farmers are also busy, taking
advantage of the annual bounty. In An Giang Province's upstream An Phu
District, they are planting 3,000 hectares of rice in the third crop, 1,400
hectares more than a year ago.
Nguyen Van Thanh, secretary of
the An Phu Party Committee, said the area has increased because the dyke system
has been expanded and strengthened.
Nguyen Van Binh, a farmer in An
Phu's Long Binh town, said: "In previous years, when the floods came,
people had to be moved and crops were inundated, causing big losses.
"Dykes have now been built,
houses and roads are no longer inundated. People can produce during the flood
season, earning larger incomes."
An Giang has spent 164 billion
Vietnamese dong (US$7.8 million) this year on dredging canals and upgrading
dykes and sluice gates to prevent inundation, according to the local Steering
Committee for Search and Rescue, Flood and Storm Control and Prevention.
Vo Thanh, director of the An
Giang Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said water levels in the
Mekong's upstream are lower than at this time in the last many years.
But the peak levels this year,
between mid-October and mid-November, would reach the third and highest warning
level, and be higher than the normal average level, he said.
In Dong Thap, which normally
faces the brunt of the flooding, farmers in flood-prone districts have planted
110,000 hectares of rice, 11,500 hectares more than a year ago.
But the planting has been
restricted to areas with robust dykes and the schedule has been calculated
carefully to avoid damage from floods.
Besides rice, farmers here also
grow water chestnut and straw mushroom when their lands are flooded, raise
blue-legged prawn and fish, and make tools and nets for fishing.
Le Van Hung, head of the Dong
Thap Steering Committee for Search and Rescue, Flood and Storm Control and Prevention
Office, said last year's floods had killed 20 people and damaged property worth
1 trillion dong ($47.62 million) in the province.
This year already natural
disasters have caused damage worth more than 46 billion dong, he said.
The province is mobilising all
its resources ahead of the flood and storm season to lessen their damage and
protect people and their properties, he said.
The People's Committee has
ordered local authorities to soon move people out of erosion-prone areas. An
estimated 1,200 families live in such areas.
Tien Giang Province has also been
preparing for the flood-storm season, upgrading dykes, relocating people from
erosion sites, and drafting plans to evacuate people in coastal areas in case
of major storms, according to the local Steering Committee for Search and
Rescue, Flood and Storm Control and Prevention.
Around 5,000 hectares of the
third rice crop in Cai Be, Cai Lay, Tan Phuoc, and Chau Thanh Districts are in
flood-prone areas where dykes are weak.
The province will provide
grass-roots officials and more than 5,000 people training in disaster relief.
Long An and Soc Trang Provinces
and Can Tho have also undertaken measures against floods: authorities have
reviewed preparations at local levels, construction and upgrade of dykes, and
mobilisation of relief workers and equipment for search and rescue.
US$1 = 20,845 Vietnamese dong
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